The Influence of the Eco-Control Package on Environmental and Economic Performance: A Natural Resource-Based Approach

Abstract

While a growing body of literature has examined and demonstrated the influence of eco-control on organizational performance, little is known about how this influence occurs within the organization. Building on a natural resource-based view, the aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which the eco-control package supports environmental capabilities that, in turn, contribute to an organization's environmental and economic performance. Using survey data from a sample of Canadian manufacturing firms, the results of this study suggest that eco-control may constitute a mechanism that can support environmental capabilities in order to contribute to a firm's environmental and economic performance. More specifically, these results suggest that the eco-control package fosters eco-learning, continuous environmental innovation, stakeholder integration, and shared environmental vision capabilities that can, in turn, contribute both directly to the firm's environmental performance and indirectly to economic performance. Also, some evidence suggests that different eco-control practices support different environmental capabilities and that the simultaneous use of several eco-control practices seems to be necessary to support the implementation of a complete set of environmental capabilities.

Corporate sustainability performance improvement using an interrelationship hierarchical model approach

“…Epstein and Roy () bridged the gap between CS formulation and implementation which requires translating formulation into action. In addition, Journeault () suggested that eco‐control packages promote the generation of new environmental innovative capabilities, such as eco‐learning, environmental invention, stakeholder incorporation, and shared environmental perception and in turn improves corporate performance. This finding is supported by the development of appropriate plans and performance indicators (Braam, de Weerd, Hauck, & Huijbregts, ; Szekely & Knirsch, ).…”

Antecedents and Consequences of Eco‐Control Deployment: Evidence from Canadian Manufacturing Firms

“…In order to face these challenges, some of the literature has addressed the importance of developing strategic tools that integrate environmental issues into a firm's core business approach, linking environmental aspects to the corporate strategy (e.g., Länsiluoto and Järvenpää, ; Searcy, ; Journeault and De Rongé, ). Eco‐control has been identified as one of the mechanisms that can help firms tackle environmental challenges (e.g., Judge and Douglas, ; Henri and Journeault, ; Arjaliès and Mundy, ; Epstein and Buhovac, ).…”

“…Past research has demonstrated that eco‐control may play an important role in supporting the adoption and deployment of environmental strategy within organizations (e.g., Epstein and Buhovac, ; Gond, Grubnic, and Herzig, ; Pondeville and Swaen, ; Arjaliès and Mundy, ; Journeault and De Rongé, ). The literature highlights the ways in which eco‐control helps identify environmental issues and opportunities and fosters the establishment of environmental strategic priorities and goals (e.g., Epstein, ; Epstein and Bichard, ; Arjaliès and Mundy, ).…”

“…The literature highlights the ways in which eco‐control helps identify environmental issues and opportunities and fosters the establishment of environmental strategic priorities and goals (e.g., Epstein, ; Epstein and Bichard, ; Arjaliès and Mundy, ). Research has also demonstrated that eco‐control may support the achievement of such strategic environmental goals by integrating environmental concerns into organizational routines, the proactive deployment of environmental initiatives and the development of unique environmental capabilities (e.g., Perego and Hartmann, ; Journeault and De Rongé, ; Journeault, ). More generally, this literature has demonstrated that eco‐control gives firms a competitive advantage by improving environmental performance (e.g., Wisner, Epstein, and Bagozzi, ; Henri and Journeault, ; Epstein and Buhovac, ; Journeault, ).…”

“…Over the last 10 years, the authors of this article have conducted an important research program which has investigated the role and contributions of eco‐control practices in Canadian manufacturing firms (e.g., Henri and Journeault, ; Journeault and De Rongé, ; Journeault, ). This research program has specifically examined the deployments of eco‐control within the organizations as well as the antecedents and consequences of such adoptions.…”